January 22, 2011

‘Bengal a lucrative investment destination’

Express News Service Posted online: Wed Dec 15 2010, 04:52 hrs

Kolkata: Assocham survey points to problem in land acquisition but says growth encouraging.

Many business and industrial projects may have hit roadblocks in Bengal but it seems that the chambers of industry have not lost confidence in the state. A survey conducted by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has concluded that the Left Front-ruled state is the most lucrative destination for investments in the country.

West Bengal, the study stated, attracted a total investment proposal of Rs 5,77,904 crore till September, 2010. In the same period the country received investment proposals of Rs 1,04,93,601 crore.

Of the total investment proposals, 73 per cent has come from private sector and the remaining 27 per cent from government.

The state’s share of total investment undertaken by different governments in the country is 3.7 per cent and in terms of investments by the private sector, Bengal’s share is 6.7 per cent.

“West Bengal is a well established, matured economy. The trade off between equity and efficiency issues has affected growth of economy in the past. However, the state has the potential to achieve double digit growth rate by exploiting complementarities between its social and economic strengths,” said the new ASSOCHAM president, Dilip Modi.

The study also pointed out the problems of land acquisition that has hit many projects. It, however, added that despite such hurdles, Bengal’s position of being the sought after investment destination is an encouraging trend.

The survey stated that nearly 50 per cent of the investment proposals are in different stages of implementation and 48.3 percent of investments are in the announcement stage. Implementation of projects involving 1.5 per cent of total investment is stalled due to various reasons, the survey said. “It may be noted that owing to the prevalence of global recessionary trends and slow down of the Indian economy investments across states have been kept on hold. This explains that a major portion of the projects have not moved beyond the announcement stage,” the survey stated.

The survey also stated that there has been a balanced development of all the sectors of the economy.

This strategy is expected to help the state reduce dependency on agriculture, add value to primary sector products and augment sources of revenue for the state, it added.